Cricket World Cup 2019: Stats back Australian Alex Carey as tournament's best wicket-keeper

Sooraj Kamath - Writer 10:12 20/07/2019
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  • Alex Carey

    Rohit Sharma, David Warner, Kane Williamson and Joe Root have the straightforward numbers to lay their claims as the best batsmen of the 2019 Cricket World Cup.

    Mitchell Starc – who took 27 wickets – can boast of being arguably the best bowler of the tournament.

    How do we compare wicket-keepers, who are tasked to not just fulfil their primary duty behind the stumps, but also chip in with crucial runs?

    We use metrics of batting average and dismissals per innings to pick out three of the best and all-rounded keepers from the tournament.

    A graphic depicting the performance of the wicket-keepers in the CWC 2019

    A graphic depicting the performance of the wicket-keepers in the CWC 2019

    The x-axis of the graph produced using numbers obtained from Cricinfo measures the batting average of the wicket-keepers. The y-axis scales the dismissals per innings, which corresponds to the total stumpings plus catches per innings.

    1. Tom Latham (New Zealand)

    The Kiwis’ man behind the stumps Tom Latham had a sub-par tournament with the bat, much like most of his team-mates. He could manage just 155 runs at an average of just 19.38 and a strike-rate of 71.76.

    However, with an average of 2.1 dismissals per game, the 27-year-old has more than made up for it. He was at the end of 21 catches in 10 games, three of them arriving in the crucial semi-final game against India.

    A simple eye-test across the World Cup could vouch for his spot on the podium. Latham finished the tournament as the keeper with the most dismissals and has achieved it at the maximum rate.

    The Christchurch-born player was never among the runs but his 56-ball 47 against England in the finals was one of the most composed innings under pressure. Latham provided his team a fighting chance on a slowing pitch, delivering when they needed him most.

    1. Jos Buttler (England)

    Buttler (6)

    World Champion Jos Buttler is the next player to step on the podium. The 28-year-old was involved in 1.2 dismissals per game and recorded a healthy average of 34.67 en route to his impressive tournament total of 312 runs.

    The Englishman’s importance to his side is not limited to the numbers on this chart, for it does not take into consideration the weight of the runs scored.

    Buttler’s 60-ball 59 against New Zealand in the final could very well go down as the most important innings of his life. Over time he has proved to be a solid, dependable batsman and his reputation of the same soared in the final.

    The wicket-keeper has an impressive overall strike-rate of 122.83, which is superior to that of every other glovesman in the tournament. But his most important contribution to his team will always be the 110-run partnership with Ben Stokes during which he took England’s score from 86/4 to 196/5 in the final.

    1. Alex Carey (Australia)
    Alex Carey

    Alex Carey

    While Adam Gilchrist partnered with Matthew Hayden during Australia’s golden age to provide strong starts, Alex Carey has played a crucial role in cleaning the mess left behind by their current under-performing middle-order.

    With 375 runs, Carey finished the tournament as the top run-getter among wicket-keepers. His average of 62.5 is a notch above that of any other player and he also maintained a great strike-rate of 104.17.

    The 27-year-old was involved in 20 dismissals, including two stumpings. His dismissal rate of 2.0 per innings is second only to that of Latham.

    However, unlike Latham and Buttler, Carey was an extremely crucial entity to his team’s batting line-up. In fact, his 375 runs accounts for 14 per cent of Australia’s total of 2757 runs off the bat. This puts him ahead of the likes of Usman Khawaja (11%), Glenn Maxwell (6%) and Marcus Stoinis (3%) and on par with Steve Smith (14%).

    A pie-chart of the runs scored by Australian batsmen in the CWC 2019

    A pie-chart of the runs scored by Australian batsmen in the CWC 2019

    Carey proved his mettle against big teams, scoring fifties against India and New Zealand and was the lone warrior against England in the semi-final. The fact that most of his runs have arrived under pressure adds more weight to them.

    Is safe to say, the 27-year-old was the best all-roundwicket-keeper of the World Cup and the Aussies struck gold with the player who is still in the early stages of his career.

    Honourable mention – Mushfiqur Rahim (Bangladesh), Shai Hope (West Indies)

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